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If what you are doing isn’t working, do something different. Choose a new path. Make different choices. Different results come from different actions. Just stop it. Really. Life is a continuum of actions and reactions. So act and react in a new way.

Ask yourself these questions:What am I willing to do differently? When am I willing to do it? How will I stay committed to doing it?

Understand, you don’t have to do anything. Changing yourself is not a requirement. You have free will. But, if you are dissatisfied with the current condition of your life, then only you can alter it. Blaming your past, your parents, your partner, or your present circumstances only serves to keep you enslaved to the present situation.

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Most of us aren’t insane. So let’s don’t act like it. If what you are doing isn’t working, do something different. Sure, it might take a while – but so did Rome.

This world is full of economic, political, social, and global uncertainty. Seems everyone is striving for something, or struggling through something, of laboring to control something. But in the end, does any of it matter? And if not, what does?

Consider this. Bronnie Ware was a palliative care nurse. In her book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, she wrote, “My patients were those who had gone home to die. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.”

Bronnie had the opportunity to ask many of them about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently. “Common themes surfaced again and again,” she said.

Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. (This was the most common regret of all.) “Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.”

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. (This came from every male patient that she nursed.) “All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. “Many people suppressed their feelings … and many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. “Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved.”

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. (This was a surprisingly common one.) “Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.”

Take some time today to ponder this list. Are there some things on here that hit home? They did for me too. Don’t wait til the end to deal with them. We only get one chance at this lifetime. Contrary to popular belief, this life is not about bigger, better, faster. It’s about who you become during the journey. Be true to yourself, don’t work so hard, express your feelings, enjoy friendships, and as often as possible, choose happiness.

I write everyday. In my journal. But that’s different. For me, that’s collecting divine thoughts and ideas, and reflecting on my journey. It’s not the same as sifting and filtering what I hear and learn each day, and then trying to articulate them into musings like this, and it’s been a while. You almost forget the rhythm of it; and the energy derived from it. Of course, as a professional writer/publisher for my music publication (www.AmericanaRhythm.com), I write frequently. But it’s still not the same.

And the hard part is, leaving something you love behind for such a long period of time gets you out of practice. You feel rusty and out of sync. I think our life in the spiritual realm is like that too. We leave the consecutiveness of the Kingdom life for existence in the material world and forget how to walk one with our creator. The freshness and the fullness derived from the manna of that relationship fills us with life. But when we neglect it, we fall out of practice, and forget the sweetness of this “life to the full.” We then wrestle unnecessarily with feelings of guilt and anxiety.

If you’re feeling out of rhythm today, I urge you to rekindle that oneness that’s available and waiting for you. Take a brief walk or find a quiet space to slow down and re-discover that rhythm. It’s the real source of life, of inspiration, and freedom. And it’s a beautiful place to live from.

Of course it’s a journey. Try going to Walmart on a Saturday night. Now, that’s an exciting journey.

Well actually, it’s an excursion. But for many, it is the pinnacle of their life’s journey.
But life itself is really the journey. A journey of evolution; personal evolution.

I’m not talking about the big bang theory either. Although some of us act like monkeys from time to time, I don’t believe we are descendants.

Humanity is the only creature with the capacity to evolve; at least to a degree that’s obvious. Look around. We used to live in cabins, and tents, and caves. Now we build sky scrapers. We used to put a letter in a pouch on a horse and wait weeks for a reply. Now we have email, and instant messaging, and texts … as a species, we have, and are evolving.

And as individuals, we are too. “Bill Thrall, author of the book The Cure, writes, “Nothing you believe and depend upon is more magnificently freeing than this single truth; you are no longer who you were, even on your worst day.”

Abraham Maslow wrote, “If our true nature is permitted to guide our life, we grow healthy, fruitful, and happy … yet 98% of us die before we taste the nectar of our magnificence.” You are not the same person you were yesterday. You never can be. But today has a whole new set of opportunities to embrace life and this journey of evolution. In fact, I believe it is the key to authentic living. We are often at war with ourselves trying to hang onto some flag we’ve planted in the sand. Call it a career, a retirement plan, a vacation home, or just maintaining an image we think everyone expects us to portray. Is that living? I’m more inclined to believe authentic life begins to flow forth when we are no longer attached to the fruit of life. When we embrace our own evolution journey as life, the fruit; success, status, material goods, etc. are byproducts. We appreciate them when they come, but we are not attached to the need of them. We know that we are merely journeymen, passing through this land on our way to something bigger and more grand than we can ever image.

Robert Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood … I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

The Dalai Lama said enlightenment is “freedom from conditioned existence.” I believe our mission here on earth is to find that freedom from conditioned existence; to find the narrow road to life; that road less traveled; and take it. “Carpe’ Dieum,” the poet Hermes wrote. Seize the day. Studies suggest that 75%+ of the population aren’t living the life they desire, or believe they should be. Even if they don’t know what that life looks like, they know the one they’re living is not cutting it.

The journey of life is many things. But it’s supposed to be exciting, and fulfilling, and full of adventure. I know it’s tough too. I know people have hardships and handicaps. And I know the God I serve is bigger than all of that. Jesus said, “behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21 KJV) And that is where we all have to wrestle with this idea that there is more to life than this. And it’s available to us now if we choose to pursue it.

It is my hope that through the Holy Spirit, the right message will penetrate through the words found here – that the content offered here will encourage you, will inspire you, will maybe even awaken and enlighten you. God is stirring hearts today in a new way. When we look above the fog that’s over this world we live in, there is an amazing life waiting for us. And as we rise up into our authentic selves, God is going to use you and me to do great things in this world and in the lives of others.